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More Details On The Hiring

Jim Zorn, new head coach, will be calling plays, directing the offense, working hands on with Jason Campbell as the primary voice directing the young QB, league sources said. That's a lot of hats to wear for anyone, much less a first time head coach. That's the primary word of caution and concern around the league, including from many coaches and execs who worked with Zorn and like him very much.

Zorn got a five-year deal, in essence, but league sources said it is actually three years guaranteed with two club options after that.

The origins of Zorn's emergence is in the demise of Steve Spagnuolo. The Redskins had concerns about Spagnuolo's readiness to be a head coach, sources said - though Spagnuolo had none on his end contrary to some reports - and thought he was not as prepared to answer some things as they had hoped. Spagnuolo did however, constantly talk about the strength of the Mike Holmgren family tree, how Andy Reid went from QB coach to head coach, how guys like Mariucci shined out of that tree before. It kept coming up, and when Spagnuolo pulled out, it resonated with them.

Cerrato also has strong ties to Zorn and was a big proponent of his. He pushed for him, league sources said. Zorn was Vinny's guy. Snyder and Cerrato discussed promoting Greg Blache, the DC, or Zorn on Wednesday in the wake of Spags pulling out (not saying he would have got the job), and being left back where they began - with Fassel as the leader among the guys they had interviewed.

They started interviewing Zorn for the head coaching job Thursday - he was stunned by their offer and the Redskins had never considered him a head coach prior to that according to numerous sources who have spoken to Snyder and Cerrato - and he became their guy, at the end, after 30-odd days during which he was not in the mix

I continue to hear that league sources believe the Redskins will try to get Tennessee assistant Sherman Smith to be the OC under Zorn, but Smith recently signed a three-year contract, and there will have to be some talks between the Skins and Titans about that. They could turn to other options as well but he and Zorn are very close.

Zorn is also expected to hire a younger, cheaper coach to be an assistant QB coach or sorts, league sources said, perhaps someone in the college ranks right now.

Also, though Earnest Byner did in fact go to Redskins Park to sign his contract last week - the one-year offer that was on the table - league sources said the team then balked at him. The Redskins are trying to land Seattle RB Coach Stump Mitchell to do that job here, league sources said, and he too is close to Zorn and has worked with him for many years. The Redskins would like to convince the Seahawks to do a coaching swap of sorts, with Byner landing in Seattle (all of this, again, is ridiculously unfair to Byner,) with Mitchell going here and Byner going there.

Former Redskins QB coach Bill Lazor already landed in Seattle last week, signing a contract to replace Zorn as the QB coach there, league sources said.

Also, I heard from league sources that Snyder put out the word that all of the assistant coaches had to be present today- to show their support you know, no matter of what they might really think - and all were to wear Redskins golf shirts (all important wardrobe decisions).

They flew Joe Gibbs in for the big announcement, and he will, I'm sure, continue to operate as a rubber stamp for the organization and will undoubtedly give his public support to this bizarre 32-day saga, despite his hand picked choice being run out of town amid false rumors leaked by the team, and a bevy of his assistants being gone, and the idea of "continuity" being harder and harder to sell as the staff continues to be overturned and the players learn another new offense.

We hear good things about Jim Zorn, let's hope it translates to succes by our team.

Dan Snyder you really need to sell this team. Respect is something needed in business, you have non of it for your team or coaches and quite frankly I have none for you. You have screwed over way too many people in this organization. What comes around goes around. Hopefully the goes around part will come quickly for you and then we all get the last laugh!

I certainly hope that Zorn does well, but this is a phuquing OUTRAGE of the highest order. The whole process has been a joke, and now word of the way they treated Byner like a dog has left me with an absolute disgust for this organization. Dan Snyder has ruined the Redskins and turned them into a laughing stock. I am at a loss here. I love the Redskins more than anything, but I cannot support the sh1t eating management in place. Dan Snyder is a classless piece of dung. He treats whackos like Tom Cruise with respect, but treats Redskins and coaches like dirt.

If Joe Gibbs really does come back to bless this and argue that this is in fact continuity, then he can go and phuque himself too. If he does, they ought to take his bust out of Canton and ship it to an insane asylum.

someone tell me what a 'league source' is? it is in every story ever wriiten about teams in the NFL. is it a person that works for the NFL in NY ( how the heck would they know so much)? or a person working for a team? I assume the latter. why not say 'some unnamed guy in the Redskins front office' or 'some unnamed coach on another team? please tell me!

I am so conflicted with Daniel Snyder... how can he do what he did with the Taylor family and then completely screw over other people without any consideration for their careers, families and personal lives. I know its a "business" but only Vinny Cerrato seems to be enjoying the ride.

If we connect the dots on the QB picture, it looks disturbing (unless you're a fan of the #8 car):

1) Brunell was almost traded to Seattle in the preseason last year, which means QB coach Zorn in all likelihood signed off on this (it was the Redskins that pulled out at the last minute when they weren't comfortable with rookie Palmer as a backup).

2) Jim Zorn was a left-handed QB just over 6 feet tall, just like Brunell.

3) Brunell's strength is the short passing game, which the West Coast offense is based on.

4) Jason Campbell's strength is the vertical passing game, which isn't what the West Coast offense is based on.

I like this guy. Of course, I have no idea if the big leap from QB coach to HC is going to go smoothly (but I was encouraged to learn this is how Andy Reid became a HC--same previosu position under Holmgren) but I find myself doubling back on my earlier thinking on Snyder now. This has to be more of a LT move in concept and shows a lot of respect for Gibbs in the prototype he seemed to seek. I love Joe but feel that the sudden nature of his announcment coupled with a lack of strong candidate in this particular year made it very hard on the club. I was tooling around the web and found this old interview of Zorn years ago (age 28) and thought others might benefit from it.

I do have one question: what "bevy" of assistants left the team? I thought it was Williams, Saunders, Lazor, maybe Byner. Is that considered a "bevy"? Or just typical coaching turnovers that affect most teams?

Working for Snyder must be like living under a Nazi regime. My way or the highway, must do this, think this, wear this. He must have been a complete toolbox growing up with no friends. Got rich and now thinks he can buy his way to respect. What an ahole.

Why are you guys squawking at JL? He's giving you inside info and his opinons to feed your off-season appetite. And you guys want him fired because he had the nerve to post the opinions of an NFL coach -- a prominent coach, not just a coach, and not just some anonymous dufus -- that the guy LIKES Zorn (positive) but that the whole process that Snyder did stunk and the RedSkins look like a joke.

Guess what? They do.

Giant and Cowboy fans I know are only focused on the other team and could care lesa bout the Skins. Your team is about as relevant to them as the Tampa Day Rays are to the Yankees and RedSox in the AL East.

Don't blame the messenger. JL liked Zorn as an OC choice and he MIGHT still work out as HC. But I never heard of a guy being hired for OC before the HC was chosen and then being promoted to the HC himself. That's insanity. It's like someone going to Drivers Ed school to learn how to drive and the company that runs the course decides the kid with the Junior License should be made an instructor.

Question I want to know is: if the RedSkins go 1-15 or 2-14 with a couple of embarassing blowouts to the Giants (possible but not probable given their offense) or to the Cowboys (very probable -- I could see Romo putting up 50 points), does Zorn get fired after 1 year?

That's why there was NO WAY Spagnullo was coming to Washington unless he got a 6 or 7 year deal. If the team stinks for the next year or two (which they will), he wants to make sure he gets paid for leaving a winning situation before Snyder brings in Cowher, Marty, Carrol, etc. Why would Spagnullo come here for a 4-year deal, likely get fired after 2 years, and then be an unemployed nobody with the RedSkins job leading off his resume? He did the right thing getting 75% of the RedSkin money from the Maras and Tisch's and he'll have other HC opportunities the next year or so.

I wonder if Snyder will have the guts to come down to the sidelines when the Skins are heading towards 2-14 or 3-13 next year.

Jack Kent Cooke in his grave would be an improvement from the Whacko Twins running this team into the ground.

This crap with Byner would suck if it's true, NOT COOL.
Bu some of you people are pitifull. This is incredibly close to the same reactions when Joe Gibbs was hired way back when. No one knew what was going to happen then, and NOONE knows what's going to happen this time either.
Snyder and Cerrato havn't shown us in the past 4 years anything that Joe Gibbs didn't sign off on. And Arch, Loyyd, Peirce and other smaller(perhaps) personnel mistakes have also come with some pretty dam good moves, JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER TEAM IN THE LEAGUE!

The Giants draft this past year was one of the MOST productive in NFL history,
but that was only one draft. The Pats have their own issues in the draft, as evidenced by their inability to draft quality LBs. I am thinking this is probably good timing for Zorn to take over, the team is rather handcuffed as far as FA goes, so the draft is pretty much the only avenue by which the team(Zorn and Snyder/Ceratto)can make personnel changes.

I expect good things in the long run with this, but it certainly has started out rather ugly, hopefully the organization is able to move past he ugly part quickly.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Dan is going to be here for a LOOONG time (just like Al Davis in Oakland and Peter Angelos in Baltimore). It's getting to be about time to accept it, or take your toys and play in someone else's sandbox.

fbifulco, know the facts before you speak. Most of us are appalled by Dan Snyder and everything he does. However, JLC constantly criticizes the team - before the season, during the season, at the end of the season...whether they are doing well or not. It gets really OLD...especially when one watches him on television doing it with a "know it all" sneer. I'm not asking that he praise the team, ownership (heaven forbid anyone could praise the ownership!) but he could at least take his bias out of his reporting.

To those of you who have been asking about the presser being televised, I heard Comcast is going to cut away from the Caps game to show some of it....and someone reported on the previous thread that NBC 4 was televising it.

I agree that our FO is screwed up but every word and every post from JLC is filled with bile. It doesn't matter what happens. I don't know what JLC has against Snyder but he (admittently) is not a Skins fan. Leave the bile to us. Just report. I know this is a blog but it isn't from his home page its from the WP Sports section. He can't have it both ways-JLC-ease up.

You know, if we believe the official bs we have been fed, it was all about Gibbs needing to be close to his grandson. If that's the case, why the hell would he show for a press conference to support a guy he didn't support to succeed him?

Gibbs' team has a race tonight - why would he comes to a press conference for a guy he didn't support to succeed him?

Shoot, if he had waited long enough, Snuder could have had Lane Kiffin. Hahahahahaha.

Guess the search process was really facile, not Fassel or even fossil. Hahahahaha.

Then again, it might've wound up being Docile Fassel, because he's a fossil and also facile.

Wouldn't it be great if some of the peeps (coaches) who are getting screwed in all of this quit during the press conference, golf shirts and all?

i understand that zorn would likely prefer stump mitchell as his rb coach.

but what is it that byner has done that has offended the front office ? from the start he has been the odd man out. what exactly did he do ? plus, when he agreed to sign the 1 year deal and the front office balked, what is THAT about ?

Because Gibbs has more loyalty to this organization than most of you blokes have.

By the way, Dick's Sporting Goods and even Walmart have plenty of other team's paraphenalia. Feel free to go shopping and join any other owner's franchise that you all see fit. We Redskins fans will be just fine.

Joe Gibbs' name was plastered throughout the press release. He'll be here today to show his face. Napolean has demanded that his troops (oops, I mean coaches ) wear Redskins collared shirts to show their support.

Danny knows he teetering on the edge with the fans, but instead of facing the music himself, he would rather attempt to sway public opinion by demanding the above.

I'd respect the man so much more if he'd just face the media, answer some questions, stop these ridiculous PR charades. It's pathetic.

I've been with you 99% of the time in your reporting, but you're going too far now. The last two paragraphs of this story went out of their way to be snarky.

"Snyder put out the word that all of the assistant coaches had to be present today- to show their support you know, no matter of what they might really think"

GOOD. That's what a leader does. The assistants don't have to like the way the organization is going. But they do have to be publicly supportive.

"and all were to wear Redskins golf shirts (all important wardrobe decisions)."

GOOD. So what if it's cheesy? It's a signal of unity, and it should be an easy thing for them to do.

"They flew Joe Gibbs in for the big announcement, and he will, I'm sure, continue to operate as a rubber stamp for the organization..."

Are we now impeaching the credibility of JOE GIBBS? To say that this man would be a rubber stamp for ANYTHING is idiotic. He may or may not agree with Snyder, but he's not a guy who spends his credibility lightly.

"...despite his hand picked choice being run out of town..."

It's never been established how Gibbs felt about Williams. Everything I've seen in the last two years points to a professional, but frosty relationship between them.

"...amid false rumors leaked by the team..."

That in itself is a rumor. What false rumors were leaked and by whom?

"...and the idea of "continuity" being harder and harder to sell as the staff continues to be overturned and the players learn another new offense..."

Do you honestly think Saunders was staying EVEN UNDER WILLIAMS? No. If Saunders was not going to pare down his playbook for Gibbs, he CERTAINLY wasn't going to do it for Williams, a defensive guy. Give me a break. This is one of the biggest fallacies of this whole process. There was NEVER going to be offensive consistency. Saunders was done in DC, period.

The FAIR truth is that Snyder stumbled through a process that included a number of guys he really didn't want. He wanted to fall in love with someone and didn't. He doesn't like Williams, and could not see working with him. What was he to do, honestly? He probably hired Zorn to be the OC irrationally, but Blache was a good call for the defensive consistency he craved. When even Spagnuolo didn't work out, he opened his mind and took stock of what he had. The easy thing would have been to hire Mooch. The fans were in favor of that. The safe thing would have been to hire Blache, in the name of consistency. But we got a choice that actually took some guts, and made him swallow some public pride, Zorn. And it's the RIGHT choice, under the circumstances.

Hopefully this will be the last act in this total fiasco that has been Dano Snyder!

Approaching 10 years of ownership and the franchise is a laughingstock! Yes, Dano bought it for 800 million and now it's worth more than a billion. Congrats. But the team is a laughingstock!

The mega-midget owner who demands to play football GM has really stepped in it again!

I thought the Steve Spurrier Act was ludicrous?!

While Zorn was a favorite QB of mine way back, he's out of his element as a head coach. He has been a QB coach that's it! And, let's face it, Hasselbeck needed very little coaching the past 9 or so years.

Dano, the team you stole from the Cookes is the biggest profit maker you have, granted. But please, take your profits and go play theme Park GM. I'm sure all the folks at Wild World (7 Flags) will love to have your day-to-day obfuscation in their venues!

Perhaps they can tie you to a roller coaster and make it run until you promise to GO HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?

I have read alot of what some people have posted in concerns of Jason Campbell and West Coast Offense. Do many people realize that Campbell ran the WCO in Auburn under Al Borges. Campbell is going to fine. Zorn will fit the offense the around Campbell; Unlike what Al Saunders was doing with Campbell.

Man and boy, I've been a Skin fan for over half a century (Eddie Lebaron was the QB then)and the tragedy of my life is waking daily with the knowledge that Snyder will probably be the last owner while I'm still vertical.

Let me see if I got this right...Joe lobbies for a key assistant who does a great co-ordinator job in trying circumstances and , oh yeah, has HC experience. Instead we hire a position coach who the "brain trust" only thought was OC material a week ago. This is pulled off by The Daniel and his lackey, Boy Vinny with ham-fisted ignorance and false rumors. There was enough lack of class left over to humiliate Skin legend Earnest Beyer into the bargain. ALL THIS because Gregg W wouldn't pretend to know less football than Cerrato. Before Snyder showed his need for the Yes Man years ago, no other team wanted him. After Marty Schott wisely gave him 5 minutes to empty his desk, STILL no other team offered Vinny a job. However, The Daniel's obsessive need to have his glutomous maximus kissed brought Vinny back after Marty who merely won 8 of the last 11 and picked rookies Smoot and Antonio Pierce up as a GM, was dispatched. God how Snyder and Vinny deserve each other. Sadly, true Skin fans deserve NEITHER

I just read about how Synder and Cerrato balked at moving forward with Ernest Byner on the signing of his contract! If this is true this is really shameful and another example of Synder's mgmt style which does not foster team and/or fan loyalty!!

fbifulco: Giant and Cowboy fans don't care? Seriously? They probably don't know much about football then. When was the last time the Cowboys won a playoff game? When was the last time the Skins won a playoff game? Who beat the Giant's on their stretch run this year and should have beaten them in the first game too? You can come up with a variety of things to try and criticize a franchise you don't like, but that's just plain silly.

Water, you may be 100% right but all the signs point to the Skins as going 5-11 next year, maybe worse.

Read the Cowboys and Giants stuff at the DMN and NYP/NYDN papers. They're each 100% focused on the other -- properly so, IMO -- with a slim shot that the Iggles can add enough weapons to make Donovan McNabb useful again.

The Skins are regarded as a laughingstock. Yes, they beat the Giants (and Boys) in December last year. Who was the coach and assistant coaches back then? I think Romo is going to put up 50 on the RedSkins next year. And Eli might put up 35.

Snyder and Cerrato are low-class clown. I know you guys want to defend the team and that's great. I am a Joe Gibbs fan who remembers the vitriol he took when he started 0-5 so I'm certainly not wishing Jim Zorn bad luck by any stretch.

But the fact remains: Snyder and Cerrato ARE LIARS who never had any intention of hiring Greg Williams. Peter King reported that as fact and Gary Meyers said the same thing. I'm sure they also conveniently 'leaked' the "Greg Williams disssed Gibbs" baloney by an underling, and then looked big by saying "Oh no, he was always 100% pro-Gibbs when we interviewed him."

You guys want to blast JL for putting out bogus junk -- who put out that Greg Williams was dissing Joe Gibbs? Either Snyder/Cerrato leaked it through an underling OR Williams has other enemies within the RedSkin organization who felt they could get away with trashing GW because (1) Snyder is an idiot who won't track it back to them or (2) they know that they'll have Snyder's/Cerrato's backing and support thanks to 'plausible deniability' ("Gee Greg, it didn't come from Vinny or myself, we have no idea who is trashing you").

If Snyder wanted to, he could have found out who leaked that crap right away. He had no intention of doing so. So JL was right in reporting it and Snyder/Cerrato are either liars or complicit.

Hey: it's his team. He can hire and fire whoever he wants. But if you don't want GW as your coach, then don't interview the man or be honest after the first 26 interviews and 3,000 hours and say "We spoke to GW and we think he stinks." Don't keep him on a string and then backstab him behind closed doors. Don't keep him waiting..and waiting...and waiting.

Oh yeah, they pulled the same crap with Fassel (for the 2nd time). Except that you guys hate Fassel for some reason even though I think he was probably the best guy to teach Campbell, esp. if Zorn was OC.

Never though I'd see the day when someone in the NFC East would be more loathsome than Philly Eagle fans and Jerry Jones combined. Congratulations, Dan Snyder and Cerrato....you disregarded Joe Gibbs advice on who to hire, now live with the consequences.

Zorn looked and sounded ridiculous. The comment about not being hired by Chuck Knox because his inexperience would hurt the team - did he really mean to say that?

Then Snyder's extended dialogue about the "process", while Zorn was standing there, Made it worse -- for Zorn.

Now he may be the next Andy Reid (but I bet Mr. Harbaugh in Baltimore will be that) or the next Ray Handley. And maybe it is right to judge Zorn in a year or so, but right now, all that talk abotu "continuity", players win now, etc etc etc., I kind of wonder about. And I'm old timers like Breaux and Bugel, do you really want to be caricatures in this cartoon? Develop your "need to be closer to family" routine like Gibbs did and "retire".

And what was Gibbs doing there? NASCAR Daytona 500 trials were today.

The press conference was NOT shown in full locally, unlike the Gibbs affair. Only brief cut-ins on channels 4 and 5; nothing on CN channels and nothing on MASN. I assume ESPNNews covered it live. Local media is king, though, and in this sense, this was NOT well done. A press conference on a Monday -- AFTER the Pro Bowl and the Sunday political news shows (and Obama in Alexandria) -- would have made a hell of lot more sense in terms of shaping the spin of this.

Maybe Vinny is PR director, too.

We need some names...

"Danny the fanny"

"Skinny Vinny"

"Scorn Zorn"

Finally, the way they have treated Byner, like how they treated Gregg Williams, is extremely troublesome.

If anyone who has posted here works in the Redskins' front office, please let us know. Then, YOU can tell us exactly how things went down, why things took as long as they did and why they went the way that they did. YOU can tell us if someone was directed to leak any information. YOU can tell us what was said by Gibbs, about Williams, to Snyder. YOU can tell us if contracts were offered to any of the candidates before Zorn. YOU can tell us all that.

However, there are quite a few people on here who want to assume they know exactly what happened and why. You can call Snyder and Cerrato any number of names you'd like, but you cannot for a second believe that you know the circumstances behind any of this. And I will say that LaCanfora has been right on in most of his postings in relation to the way things were moving, but he has been wrong before and he'll probably be wrong again. Nothing against him, I think he does a great job. But, I won't believe 100% of what he writes simply because he works for the Post and I don't. Sure, he's much closer to things than the rest of us will ever be, but that doesn't make him infallible.

I think there are a lot of people who need to step back, take a breath, calm down and understand that there is a whole lot about a whole lot that you don't know. We may always want to know what's going on, but that isn't the way things work. And simply guessing what's happening based on your ideas about the guys who run the show simply makes you sound bitter.

Also, what in the world would make anyone think that the 'Skins would be 1-15 or 2-14 next year? And the fact that the Giants FANS and Cowboys FANS are only talking about the other...who cares? Fans don't win football games.

Is it actually documented ANYWHERE that Joe Gibbs verbally or otherwise endorsed GW? If so I want a link to it, cause my understanding is JG never mentioned GW as his replacement.
On the surface, the Byner situation sounds really bad, I love Byner as much as anyone, but we dont really know whats going on behind the scenes. Yes Snyder has made his share of bad decisions, but do you actually think he would fire a 'great' RB coach? Im not saying Byner isnt doing a great job, cause I dont know to what level they consider great, maybe theres something their looking for that Byner cant produce. And JLC, I like reading your stuff, but lately you have been a bit of a lil biatch about stupid stuff,(golf shirts) Maybe Snyder has dissed you and your pissed off or something, but keep your personal diggs at the FO to a minium and just report. Thats your job right? We really have no idea what was really being discussed and examined during this whole process do we? Even with all the 'league sources' giving their......what was that word again..um.....hmmmm, oh yeah, OPINION!!!! Thats really all we've had is a bunch of opinions and SPECULATION the last 32 days. I think Zorn is a good decision, but Im just speculating, at this point.